Consciousness is too vague a concept to summarise, or even come close to understanding. We ourselves, conscious beings, deem ourselves as conscious. Do we even have a right to call ourselves that? A self appointed title that merely facilitates our own inflated egos. We humans tend to trivialise concepts and break them down to the simplest statements that can be effectively grasped by those that we try to convey our arguments to. But consciousness is no simple matter.
How can we explain this feeling of being in our own bodies? That feeling of experiencing the quality of the deep sea engulfing us, and the sand brushing against our skin, or of the sensation brought about by a mid C or a corresponding perfect rhythm. The rush of happiness and joy when we see our pets after a long day at work, and the the devastating sinking feeling when we lose a loved one. Who are we to say that one thing or organism deserves to be called a conscious being whereas another is immediately disregarded from this status? Let’s make that question much simpler, and go back to the beginning.
Who are we?
For centuries, humans have asked and tried to determine the nature of life itself, asking for its purpose, and the motive for creation behind it. Hoping to seek out how it came about, and how it developed. From nothingness to this beautiful complex biological structure that can think and fend for itself, that can adapt and rationalise, a being that can talk about other similar beings and ask questions to try to understand itself. If you were to sit down and take a good few minutes thinking about who you are in a broader sense, you would be left feeling almost empty. How can we experience an entire life from our own perspective, from within our own bodies, with no way of knowing whether any other human being you come across is going through this passage in a way that reflects the experiences that you yourself are feeling?
The notion of languages helping shape our minds is one that arises from this forage into consciousness. Language has always been existent in one form or another throughout history and regions. Communicating with other entities requires some form of provoking and interfacing, which is made easier via an established mechanism that can be understood by all parties involved. It can be said that languages and metaphors helped create and shape human consciousness. A bold claim to make, but one with reasoning nonetheless. Languages get more complex via the medium of metaphors, with humans developing the ability to have introspection, and little by little, any hallucinations and vivid thoughts are suppressed. We are brought back to earth, as opposed to a space where our minds may have once been our universe. One that goes on inwardly forever.
One word that repeatedly pops up when delving into the topic of consciousness is awareness. The state of experiencing our surroundings. Let’s start there; experience. Experience is a crucial factor when it comes to consciousness. One may be forgiven for thinking memory is a prime directive in the search for consciousness, or even for mistaking it with experience. They are very different things. Where one may recall a past event, it is something else altogether to have lived through it and learnt from it; to have taken away something of meaning from an otherwise unmeaningful interaction. Experience is an ongoing mental representation of the world around us. We are all subconsciously guided by every piece of information we’ve ever consumed, shaping our ideas as well as our instincts, forming us into what we are. It involves so much more than the recall of a past event (which is something that computers have been primarily constructed to do, with the simplest mechanisms being calculators, remembering previous entries and computing upon them). Experiences involves the vividly beautiful collection of imagery, sounds, and stimuli felt via the interaction with the ever expanding universe that is out there. But then again, it could be said that a machine too could interact with the world via its array of sensors, enabling it to map out the terrain before it, the peaks and drops in audio waves, and the pressure implied upon various surfaces, all coming together to give it an experience of the foreign world around it.
If we can use experience as a basis for consciousness, machines are very much conscious too.
Another topic that must be touched upon is that of Artificial Intelligence, and where the line can be drawn between code and consciousness. Humans are not unlike machines. We both possess sensors into the outside world, where one has eyes, the other has cameras. Where one has ears, the other has microphones. Where one has the sense of touch, the other has pressure pads. We both also have mechanisms to interact with the outside world. Our limbs can be modelled with materials and shaped as our own and our speech can be replicated via speakers and synthesisers. We both also possess the ability to learn from mistakes. Where one may take longer to adapt and reconsider its stance, another may be programmed to react differently to stimuli. And we also possess storage of memory and the ability to compute and calculate based on this sensory information, our brains and a computer’s hard drive and Central Processing Unit are essentially making use of the same construct, just with different scales of connections and synapses for data transfer.
What about pain? In essence, our bodies are just wired to protect themselves at all costs, and pain is a simple construct that aids in alerting us of danger and reminding us not to do something stupid. AI also possesses safety measures and mechanisms that can prevent it from being harmed or harming another. Our similarities are greater than our differences. So why don’t we grant robots and accompanying Artificial Intelligence the privilege of being labelled as conscious? If we were to ask people what makes humans and AI different, they will almost always shut down the question by stating that the AI is in essence artificial or fake, that it isn’t real. In almost every way, AI can replicate what we humans can do, and more so, they can do it repeatedly without getting tired or worn out from the incredibly taxing tasks that we pride ourselves for being able to achieve. Maybe we’re all just scared of being replaced. Why are we not okay with humans getting beaten up and abused, but pay no mind to a robot receiving a signal that there’s been damage to their system? Maybe we are all just biased towards humanity.
Is consciousness even real? Yes, I’m experiencing something. But how can I know that my experiences are reflected in you, or in the person down the street, or the elderly lady at the pharmacy, or the young and energetic man with a briefcase on my way to work. We all giggle, we all wince, yes we all cry. I know that something is felt and something happens every time I go through these emotions and life’s ups and downs, but how can I be sure that you or anyone else around me is experiencing the same thing? Is everyone we meet merely a projection depicted by our own minds, automated to cater to our own stimuli, and react to our interactions and screams into the void? We can never really know whether what we feel in a moment of sheer unaltered happiness can be felt by those around us in their own moments of absolute joy. Are our euphorias the same, and can they even be measured?
What does it mean to have consciousness? Maybe it’s free will, maybe it’s randomness, or maybe it’s the illusion thereof. Maybe consciousness is the ability to realise that free will doesn’t exist. Maybe we’re all part of a huge random number generator that’s pushing out commands associated with those respective numbers. Or maybe, there isn’t any fundamental core concept that defines consciousness. Maybe we’re left with more questions than we started out with, and maybe that’s the true meaning of consciousness.
Psst, here’s something incredibly cool regarding consciousness.
Let us know what you think, and whether you have your own definition of what it means to be conscious. Let us know over on Twitter, or as a Medium Response below. 😉
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